Sunday, February 17, 2008

The FIA has made many changes to both the sporting and technical regulations from the 2007 Formula 1 season.

New Rules for Engines:

The FIA has designed measures to cut development costs. Engines homologated and used in the last two races in 2006 must be used in the 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons. This measure has been widely described as an 'engine freeze'. Engines are rev-limited to 19000rpm. The rule of the two race engine no longer applies to the Friday practice sessions. This means that drivers can save their race engines for the remainder of the weekend by using alternative engines on Fridays.

Weekend Schedule:

The Grand Prix weekend format has seen a slight modification and the two practice sessions on Fridays have been extended from 60 to 90 minutes each.

New Rules for Tyres:

The new rules have made BridgestoneFormula One racing’s sole tyre supplier rom 2007. Only specifications of tyre per event will be given to each team. All the same each team will get more sets, twofour per driver on Fridays and ten for the remainder of the weekend. During the race each driver must use both specifications. Spectators can easily distinguish which tyre a driver is using at any time by a white grove on the tread of the softer compound.

Rules for Safety Car:

Safety car regulations have been modified from 2007. The modification have been made to stop back markers from interfering with the leaders during the restart of a race and to prevent drivers from diving for the pits the moment the safety car comes onto the circuit. Until the field behind the safety car is bunched up no car is permitted to enter the pits. Before the safety car goes back to the pit, any lapped car running between cars on the lead lap should overtake those cars and the safety car before taking their correct position at the back.

Rules for Friday Practice Sessions:

All teams are now allowed to run one alternative test driver during each Friday session and third cars will no longer be allowed. The alternative driver can use either of the team's race cars but should be nominated beforehand.

Safety Rules:

For more effective potential hazard alerts, a GPS marshalling system is being introduced. This system involves a cockpit light display of flag signals in each driver’s car. It is now required for all cars to be fitted with a medical warning light a little ahead of the driver's cockpit. This is connected to the FIA data logger and is set up to provide the rescue crew with immediate indication of the accident’s severity. The mandatory crash tests have been made more stringent. The minimum size for the impact absorbing structure has been raised. The velocity used in the frontal impact test has also been increased to 15m/s from 14 m/s.

The new rule dictates that the driver's cockpit must be fitted out with special anti penetration panels of zylon. In order to offset the weight of the panels, an additional five kgs have been added to the car’s minimum weight requirement.